NGO Monitor Correspondence with the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs Regarding German Funding to Terror Linked Palestinian NGOs
NGO Monitor Letter to Heiko Maas, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister Dr. Müller, Member of the Bundestag (June 28, 2020)
Dear Minister Maas,
Dear Minister Dr. Müller,
We write to you regarding evidence that we have uncovered, showing that German government grantees are linked to a terrorist organization. Similar concerns are being discussed intensively and urgently across Europe. For example, on May 19, Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi stated during a meeting of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), that he had instructed the heads of EU delegations to Israel and West Bank/ Gaza to “look deep” in to the allegations that some EU funds go to terror-linked or -supporting NGOs, declaring that such funding “will not be tolerated.”
In the German context, different ministries and their respective agencies are funding projects (more details in the attached document) that involve at least four NGOs – the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Al-Haq and Addameer – with reported ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an EU-designated terror organization. Senior officials of two or more of these (UAWC and Addameer) were arrested as part a 50-person terror cell operating in the West Bank allegedly responsible for a bomb attack that murdered a teenager in August 2019.
- Samer Arbid, UAWC accountant and previously UAWC “financial officer” (formerly Addameer’s accountant). Arbid is on trial for commanding the PFLP terror cell that carried out the bombing. According to the indictment against him (on file), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device.
- Abdel Razeq Farraj, UAWC “Finance and Administration Director.” According to his indictment (on file), Razeq Farraj held a senior PFLP post and authorized the August 2019 bombing. He is currently standing trial.
- Khalida Jarrar: Addameer’s vice-chairperson until 2017, Jarrar was arrested in October 2019 on suspicions of “involvement in terror activity.” On December 18, 2019, it was revealed that Jarrar had “emerged as the head of the PFLP in the West Bank and responsible for all the organization’s activities” (emphasis added). According her indictment (on file), she headed the PFLP in the West Bank since June 2016.
- Raji Sourani, founder and director of PCHR, was “prohibited from leaving Palestine (sic) from 1977 to 1990.” According to media reports, Raji Sourani served “a three-year sentence [1979-1982] imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…” In February 2014, the PFLP organized a ceremony in Gaza honoring Sourani for winning the “Alternative Noble Prize.”
- Jaber Wishah, PCHR Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors until 2017, in 1985 served as “the head of the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Gaza.” A September 1999 article in Arabic language media similarly states that he was responsible for the PFLP’s military apparatus. Wishah was convicted by Israel of “holding a leading position in a terrorist organization of which he was a member, intentionally attempting to kill an Israeli Staff Sergeant in Gaza, configuring a bomb and planting a bomb, possession of firearms and conspiring to commit murder.”
- Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq General director, has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan. In 2007, the Israeli High Court referred to Jabarin as a “Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, acting some of the time as the CEO of a human rights organization, and at other times as an activist in a terror organization” (NGO Monitor’s unofficial translation of the ruling by the Israeli High Court of Justice – June 20, 2007).
Our research, publicly available at www.ngo-monitor.org, shows numerous direct connections between individuals employed by or serving on the board of these NGOs and the PFLP terror organization.
We urge Germany to take necessary measures and, like the EU, launch an investigation in order to prevent the abuse of development funds by those involved in or supporting terror organizations.
Sincerely,
Prof Gerald M. Steinberg Olga Deutsch
President Vice President
German MFA Response to NGO Monitor (July 10, 2020)
Dear Ms Deutsch,
Dear Mr Steinberg,
Thank you for your letter sent electronically to the German Federal Ministers Heiko Maas and Dr Gerd Müller on 28 June 2020. I was asked to reply on their behalf.
Please rest assured that the German government continuously reviews its partner and implementing organisations on the ground in order to ensure compliance with our funding terms and professional standards, which prohibit the support of terrorism. Our contracts with partner and implementing organisations include a sanction clause and require organisations to comply with existing restrictive measures of the European Union. Our strict compliance requirements ensure that each project is monitored continuously. The German government takes allegations of structural links between its partners and terror organisations very seriously and follows them up with the utmost care. No such allegations with regard to our programmes in the Palestinian territories have been substantiated.
Yours sincerely,
Bernd Dunnzlaff
Head of Division
Division 300 – Middle East I, policy issues of cooperation with the Middle East and MENA
NGO Monitor Letter to Heiko Maas, German Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister Dr. Müller, Member of the Bundestag (July 23, 2020)
Dear Minister Maas,
Dear Minister Dr. Müller,
We received your response – sent to us on 10 July by Bernd Dunnzlaff, Head of Division 300 – Middle East I, policy issues of cooperation with the Middle East and MENA – assuring us that “The German government takes allegations of structural links between its partners and terror organisations very seriously and follows them up with the utmost care. No such allegations with regard to our programmes in the Palestinian territories have been substantiated.”
In our letter from 28 June, we alerted you to evidence that German government grantees are linked to a terrorist organization. Additionally, we referred to the ongoing review that the EU is conducting on the same matter.
We write to you now to inform you of an important development in the Netherlands.
On July 20, the Dutch government announced it was freezing funding to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) over its close links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization by the EU and others. Foreign Minister Stef Blok and Development Minister Sigrid Kaag revealed that an internal government audit concluded that Dutch funds were used to pay the salaries of two individuals arrested for murder.
As stated in our original letter, in the German context, different ministries and their respective agencies are funding projects that involve at least four NGOs – the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), Al-Haq and Addameer – with reported ties to the PFLP. Senior officials of two or more of these (UAWC and Addameer) were arrested as part a 50-person terror cell operating in the West Bank allegedly responsible for a bomb attack that murdered a teenager in August 2019.
- Samer Arbid, UAWC accountant and previously UAWC “financial officer” (formerly Addameer’s accountant). Arbid is on trial for commanding the PFLP terror cell that carried out the bombing. According to the indictment against him (on file), Arbid prepared and detonated the explosive device.
- Abdel Razeq Farraj, UAWC “Finance and Administration Director.” According to his indictment (on file), Razeq Farraj held a senior PFLP post and authorized the August 2019 bombing. He is currently standing trial.
- Khalida Jarrar: Addameer’s vice-
chairperson until 2017, Jarrar was arrested in October 2019 on suspicions of “involvement in terror activity.” On December 18, 2019, it was revealed that Jarrar had “emerged as the head of the PFLP in the West Bank and responsible for all the organization’s activities” (emphasis added). According her indictment (on file), she headed the PFLP in the West Bank since June 2016. - Raji Sourani, founder and director of PCHR, was “prohibited from leaving Palestine (sic) from 1977 to 1990.” According to media reports, Raji Sourani served “a three-year sentence [1979-1982] imposed by an Israeli court which convicted him of membership in the illegal Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine…” In February 2014, the PFLP organized a ceremony in Gaza honoring Sourani for winning the “Alternative Noble Prize.”
- Jaber Wishah, PCHR Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors until 2017, in 1985 served as “the head of the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Gaza.” A September 1999 article in Arabic language media similarly states that he was responsible for the PFLP’s military apparatus. Wishah was convicted by Israel of “holding a leading position in a terrorist organization of which he was a member, intentionally attempting to kill an Israeli Staff Sergeant in Gaza, configuring a bomb and planting a bomb, possession of firearms and conspiring to commit murder.”
- Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq General director, has been denied exit visas by Israel and Jordan. In 2007, the Israeli High Court referred to Jabarin as a “Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, acting some of the time as the CEO of a human rights organization, and at other times as an activist in a terror organization” (NGO Monitor’s unofficial translation of the ruling by the Israeli High Court of Justice – June 20, 2007).
We urge you to immediately freeze any funds that may be going to UAWC or other terror-linked NGOs, launch an investigation into previous grants to UAWC, and implement robust vetting mechanisms to ensure that terror-linked NGOs cannot gain access to taxpayer funds.
Sincerely,
Prof Gerald M. Steinberg Olga Deutsch
President Vice President
CC: Ambassador Dr. Susanne Wasum-Rainer
Ms. Tanja Gönner
Mr. Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
Mr. Bernd Dunnzlaff
Related Articles
The PFLP-NGO Network
NGO Monitor has published a series of reports detailing eight non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.
Union of Agricultural Work Committees' Ties to the PFLP Terror Group
Numerous UAWC staff members, founders, board members, general assembly members, and senior staff members have ties to the PFLP terror group. UAWC is identified by Fatah as an official Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) “affiliate” and by a USAID-engaged audit as the “agricultural arm” of the PFLP. According to academic scholar Glenn E. Robinson, UAWC was founded in 1986 by “agronomists loosely affiliated with the PFLP.”
Addameer’s Ties to the PFLP Terrorist Group
Several of Addameer’s current and former employees, as well as lawyers that work for Addameer, have links to the PFLP. As an organization, Addameer regularly provides legal assistance to Palestinians accused by Israel of PFLP membership or activity on behalf of the terror group, such as PFLP General-Secretary Ahmed Sa’adat.
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights' Links to the PFLP Terror Group
PCHR has multiple links to the PFLP terror organization, designated as such by the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel.
Current and Former NGO Employees Arrested as Part of PFLP-Terror Cell
On December 19, 2019, the Israel Security Agency (Shabak) announced it had uncovered a 50-person terror network, operated in the West Bank by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) – a designated terrorist organization in the EU, the US, Canada, and Israel. The statement named several leading PFLP figures, several of whom currently or previously worked for European funded, PFLP-linked non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
